Spurs say: Not in our house

Spurs guard Danny Green celebrates one of his seven 3-pointers against the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

Spurs guard Danny Green celebrates one of his seven 3-pointers...

Celebrities, millionaire players and San Antonio's well-heeled sat courtside Tuesday night to see the Spurs hammer the Miami Heat, 113-77.

But way up there, high above the court in the darkened rafters of the AT&T Center, where the hot air rises and the eagles dare, sat the heart and soul of the Spurs Nation, perched like black-and-silver hawks.

Express Newsletters

Get the latest news, sports and food features sent directly to your inbox.

Sitting in the sky, fans say, requires balance, good eyes and a sense of humor.

“The air,” said Lanny McDormand, who drove in from Odessa with son Justin Spurwell and Justin's friend David Shinsky, “is awfully thin up here in the nosebleeds.”

The McDormand party sat in Row 23, which stretches the length of the arena on two sides. It's the absolute last row of the arena, squeezed in against the exterior wall and the roof, accessed only by a long, straight, steep stairway.

“It's a helluva ride,” he said after taking his seats in Section 206. “At least you can't get any farther away.”

And you can't get cheaper, though cheap may be a bit of an overstatement.

The Balcony Level seats usually sell, fans say, for less than $100. But for Tuesday's game, they were selling for $300 to $400 from online ticket brokers. That's still cheap compared to the courtside and floor seats, which sold for thousands.

Across the arena, Jim Warren of Austin also tried to make the most of Row 23.

“Those stairs have got to be 25 or 30 degrees,” joked Warren, sitting on the other side of the arena, in Section 224, alongside children Drew, Mack and Maddie.

He's right. The balcony is so steep, each seat is more like an aerie.

The steepness of the Balcony Level, Warren explained, makes up for the distance from the court. Each row has an unobstructed — albeit distant — view because it towers over the row in front of it.

“These are the cheap seats,” Warren said, “but they're the best cheap seats anywhere in town.”

As his kids groaned and grinned, Warren continued his Row 23 sales pitch.

“Look,” he said, turning around in his seat to face the concrete wall. “There's nobody behind us, bothering us.”

He pointed at Row 22.

“That seat is a bummer,” he said. “But our seats are awesome.”

“Maddie,” he said, seeking support from his 8-year-old daughter. “What do you think of these seats?”

“Well,” she said, oblivious to dad's cue. “They're kind of far away.”

Most of the fans in the 200s were clad head-to-toe in silver and black. Each one made that arduous climb up the concrete steps, high over the basketball court. Throw in the black seats and the lack of roof lighting, and the Balcony Level is almost invisible on television.

But a longtime stadium worker says it's home to the team's best fans.

“This is a great section,” beer vendor Kenneth Castorena said. “The real noise in this arena is up here. There's nothing up here but diehards.”

The Miami Heat, he said, is one of the visiting teams that brings out the vitriol of the 200s.

“It gets very loud when Miami or the Lakers come here,” Castorena said. “That's when it gets very rowdy.”

Like a goat or a sherpa on a mountain side, Castorena can maneuver the 200s with ease, lugging 50 pounds of ice and beer for most of the night.

It's a lot dicier for others.

The stairs in the 200s, he said, are so steep that even young fans will keep a death grip on the rail as they climb. As the game is played, some fans will lean forward to adjust their seating and suddenly have the sense of falling. They'll grab anything substantial — a seat, a friend, a stranger — in order to maintain balance.

“We tend to grab up here,” fan Elton Porter joked.

“In a good way,” wife Tina Porter added quickly.

But the sense of falling is real. Every once in awhile, Castorena says, a fan loses their sense of balance on the stairs.

In those cases, other fans are quick to help, Castorena said. It's some sort of unwritten law for aisle seat holders.

But if fans can avoid falling and don't mind watching ants, the 200s are great, they say.

“It's a good section,” said Vincent Martinez, who sits in the 200s several times a season. “The crowd gets pretty rowdy up here.”